Eight members of the Jalisco State Police were reported missing and, subsequently, on Wednesday, February 19, twelve black bags containing mutilated bodies were found in the locality of Teocaltiche towards La Esperanza. It is presumed that these remains belong to the missing police officers.
The municipal police were last seen on February 11 near Lagos de Moreno, where they were allegedly heading to perform control and confidence tests. In light of the lack of news regarding their whereabouts, a search operation was deployed by the Secretariat of Security in collaboration with the National Guard and the Mexican Army.
Authorities reported that the bags containing human remains found belong to the eight people reported missing, and these remains were sent to the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences (IJCF) for identification. A police presence has been maintained in the surrounding municipalities with the aim of dismantling and apprehending criminal gangs.
According to Marcela Figueroa, head of the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System, seven entities in Mexico concentrate nearly half of the country's homicides, including Guanajuato, Baja California, State of Mexico, Chihuahua, Jalisco, Guerrero, and Nuevo León, with a total of 14,862 homicides. During the first quarter of Claudia Sheinbaum's presidency, intentional homicides decreased by 16.3%.
Despite this, in the previous administration, which ended in 2024, there was a significant increase in the homicide rate, closing with a total of more than 196,000 murders. However, Figueroa stated that between 2018 and 2024, there was an 18.3% reduction in the daily homicide figure, decreasing from an average of 100.5 daily victims in 2018 to 82.1 in 2024. Despite these downward statistics, final year data from SESNSP is expected by January 20.
